


the next time

by questionableatbest



Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-23 14:30:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6119319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/questionableatbest/pseuds/questionableatbest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on the prompt: Laurel goes to Wes' apartment after he finds out about what he (possibly) did to his mom. She just got into a fight with Frank because he felt like they weren't where they used to be and it (possibly) ended in a breakup.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the next time

Laurel could practically feel the blood pulsing through her head, pounding. She was exhausted, running on coffee fumes and anger alone, but that was nothing new.

Everything always had a way of going to shit at the same time, and this had been no different. Annalise, in all of her meticulous planning and careful guardedness, had left the paper out for Wes to find it, and he did. It was sitting on her desk, and when he read it he’d torn out of the house faster than anybody had ever seen him go.

And Frank hadn’t told her why. He’d brushed it off- said that Wes was angry about a case, and that he’d be back soon; that he just needed to cool off. Evidently, that hadn’t been the case, as Annalise had just told her.

“He would have found out sooner or later- this way, nobody gets hurt,” she’d said, the usual hard look in her eye when Laurel had demanded answers.

“What about him? HE gets hurt,” Laurel had yelled back, having long since lost her patience. “Just because you don’t care about him anymore, doesn’t mean he deserves this.”

Annalise hadn’t said anything to that, and Laurel stormed out of her office a moment later. Now she was sitting in her car outside of Wes’ apartment, waiting to go in, though she had no idea what she was waiting for.

She’d dealt with a lot in her life, but this was new territory. Still, that thought told her exactly what she was going to do; she was going to deal with it.

With that in mind, she climbed out of the car and slammed the door behind her, locking it as she headed straight for the apartment door. Her shoulders were back, her head was held high, and she knew what she was doing.

She didn’t hesitate to knock when she got to his door, and when he didn’t answer, she grabbed the knob and realized that it was unlocked.

She opened it slowly, suddenly terrified of what she was going to see.

She let out a sigh of relief when she saw that Wes was sitting on the edge of his bed, elbows on his knees and his head bowed. He looked worse than she’d ever seen him, but he was breathing. That’s what counted.

His face broke out into a grim smile when he saw her. “It took you long enough- I thought you’d be here hours ago.”

“Wes-”

“That’s what you do, isn’t it? You take care of people. That’s why you hid the paper from me,” he interrupted her, his smile replaced by a tight line, and his tone nothing short of furious. “You had no right to do that.”

“Seeing that paper hasn’t done you any good, so I’d say I had every right to do it,” she said, forcing as much conviction into her voice as she could. She held his gaze until he looked away, and she was only a little bit grateful when he did.

“You need to stop trying to protect me,” he said, his voice cracking half way through, as he continued to look anywhere but in her eyes. Altogether, it made his statement entirely unconvincing. “I don’t deserve it. I killed my-”

“No, you didn’t,” Laurel snapped, finally stepping into the room and letting the door close behind her. She took a few more steps, but before she could kneel in front of him, he stood up and walked to the window, effectively putting space between them. “Wes, you can’t really think that you killed her- you know as well as I do that evidence can be tampered with and reports can be forged- we do it every day with Annalise. That paper doesn’t mean anything.”

Wes turned away from her, looking out the window and running a hand over his head. “Then why would Annalise let me see it? She has to think I did it.”

“Please don’t ask me to try to understand why she does anything,” Laurel said, letting out an exasperated sigh and letting herself drop onto the bed, taking the seat he’d evacuated. “If I did, I’d be here all day.”

“Laurel-”

“Wes.”

“You shouldn’t be here.”

“And you shouldn’t be alone.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t be alone with me.”

Laurel rolled her eyes at that. “Tell me, does constantly vilifying yourself ever get exhausting?”

That got Wes to turn around, though rather than anger, he had a pleading look on his face that almost caught Laurel off guard. “I killed Sam. I might have killed my mother. I don’t deserve your help.”

Laurel pursed her lips together, and pushed herself up, off the bed. She then crossed the room, and only stopped when she was standing directly in front of him, looking up and into his eyes. “You’re my friend. You get my help whether or not you deserve it.”

Wes pauses for a moment, before he finally looked back at her. He still seemed tense, but something in his eyes also told her that he was at peace. “I was right about you before, you know- you are a good person, Laurel. One of the best I’ve ever known.”

“Yeah well, knowing the people that we hang around with, that isn’t too much of a compliment,” she said, laughing once and smiling dully, trying not to show just how much those words affected her. “Besides, you’re not too bad yourself.”

He smiled slightly at that, before he reached out and let his hand fall on her shoulder. She remembered what happened last time they’d had this conversation, and she remembered how it had ended. Still, she didn’t pull away when he took a step closer and, before she knew what was happening, he was hugging her.

“Thank you, Laurel,” he whispered into her hair, one hand still on her shoulder while the other had wrapped around her back and was holding onto her tightly.

They stayed like that for several moments, and Laurel found herself melting into him. Her arms left her sides, and she wrapped them gently around his waist, while her face remained buried in his chest. She felt him move before she was ready for him too, but before he pulled back entirely, he placed a lingering kiss on the top of her head.

While he took a small step back, she stayed where she was, crossing her arms over her chest and waiting for him to speak first. When he did, he asked about the last thing on her mind.

“Where’s Frank tonight?”

“We had a disagreement,” she said with a note of finality, telling herself that she definitely hadn’t detected a hint of jealousy in his voice.

“Yeah?” he asked, his eyebrows raised and his gaze calculating for a moment, before he took a step towards her, closing the distance that he’d just created, with his eyes studying her face the whole time.

She knew what he was really asking, and she knew what she wanted to say. She bit her lip and held his gaze for a moment, before she gave him a small, barely there nod. “Yeah.”

His hands were on her a second later, pulling her into him and intertwining in her hair, while his mouth found hers. She reached up and met him half way, already wanting more.

In so many ways it was just like last time. Before him, she hadn’t realized that kisses could be so soft and so kind, but Wes was both of those things so it only made sense that he’d kiss that way. Still, underneath all of that, they were both looking for something- a closeness- that they saw in each other. Because of that, their motions quickly became frantic, as they both wanted more.

In that way, it was entirely unlike the last time. This time, neither of them pulled away.

**Author's Note:**

> there are not enough wes x laurel fics in the world, and i've decided to remedy that!
> 
> if you want to leave me a prompt, come find my on tumblr @ campwellsjaha.tumblr.com and i'll do my best to fill it!


End file.
